One tough cookie: Day 2

First off I need to make corrections to my last post. The name Mabe is actually the name of the orphanage and the man who runs it is Marco.

           

            Day 2 in PAP: I was woken up by the 3 dings of the breakfast bell at St. Josephs. I walked down stairs to sit with the troops for breakfast and they had made a new friend, Melissa. Her story is interesting; she is a 40-year-old ex-lobbyist from Kentucky who is on her 2^nd or 3^rd trip to Haiti and is meeting with the Minister of women’s health while on her trip. The past year she has been traveling in order to find her new path in life and Haiti is the final stop. Melissa is a Political Science major with a passion to do what she wants to do and stand up for what she believes is right; I like her style. She had been lobbying in New York for many years and as she said it, “Washington is where the political line is towed but New York is where change and progress is made so that is where I went.” After we all ate breakfast Marco, Paul, Liesa, the boys and I took off to an amputee clinic to drop off money that someone from East Bay had raised.

            The drive there was hot and fueled with traffic, which is pretty normal. Driving by street markets I asked if this was due to the quake or was this normal? And it was normal, the adults in the car described to me that PAP is pretty much how it was before the quake except for all the collapsed buildings. Haiti is truly an impoverish country and the earthquake didn’t cause the poverty it only intensified it. While driving I witnessed just how tough these people are, a guy on a motorcycle was cruising through traffic at around 25mph when he almost T-boned another guy who was trying to cross the traffic. The first guy skidded on the dusty road did two fish tails and went down in slacks and a button-up. He did two-barrel rolls and landed on his feet dealing a death stare to the other guy. It was incredible and Paul’s response was great, “He is like a cat and played it off like when I trip on a curb.” We made it to the Amputee clinic (I don’t have the names written down they are in pictures so I will eventually have the names up.) and we were greeted by an American doctor from Berkley who did his residency in Citrus Heights and moved to New Zealand after he graduated. We received a tour of the clinic that has turned out 240 services in the last 6-months. There are 3 technicians that I met, 2 of them are trainees who I had the pleasure of speaking too, Rejouis Thelemaque and Noel Dieuver. Both of them volunteered at the hospital after the quake in 2010 Rejouis was a translator for the aid workers and Noel helped carry injured people on the hospital grounds. Neither of them was getting paid at first but felt they needed to help their fellow Haitians in a time of need. After a few months of them working at the hospital they were given an opportunity to train as a maker of prosthetic limbs. At this hospital they make everything by hand, which is why skilled laborers are needed to make the prosthetics and the training time is about 2 years. J’mo was on his sixth month of one year tour of working 24/7, 365 days for free. He ended up in Haiti because an old friend from his residency gave him a call and told him that this clinic, which was in need of a doctor, he said yes immediately. After the tour by J’mo he said, “If you can spend a week in Haiti and not feel anything you are not connected to your heart.” In Haiti there is no window dressing in society like the “American dream” it just a rough existence. We left J’mo and the clinic with some money that had been raised for them and a bag of medicine. We all thanked each other for their time and were off for some lunch.

            After lunch a phone call was received that had to deal with the adoption of the boys so we headed over to his office where I met Roby. While Paul and Leisa were talking with their layer Roby walked up and was introduced to us as the director of FAVAJ, which is his organization that feeds street kids. Roby said they feed any where from 50-250 kids a day 5 days a week and they as many as they can afford. I was invited to come by the next day to cook the food and serve it to the kids and how could I pass up an offer like that so I agreed to be there the next day. The rest of the day we ran errands and ended back at St. Josephs for a nap before we headed out to a night of traditional Haitian music, Konpa.

            The night was warm and humid, the bottom floor of the hotel was packed and the dance floor was hot. The band performs every Thursday night at the Hotel, the owner and his wife are the bandleaders. There are eight member of the band and they keep the music pumping all night with an occasional 30-second break. Even though I had no idea what they were saying all the locals where happily singing along with smiles on their faces so I figured it was some good lyrics. The night ended, we went home and I feel asleep with quick  drum beats and bass lines in my head. I will say I was skeptical at first about going out while in Haiti because we are here to help people but to help people you need to understand them and music from the culture is a good place to connect.

            Lesson learned: If you travel as an aid worker where an extended stay at one place is your mission keep with the flow of the work because too much energy burns the residents out when visitors comes.